HANDWRITING CURRICULUM COMPARISON CHART ©2018 Religious Grades Price Range Style HANDWRITING Content Programs Italic/ PK K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Christian $ $$ $$$ Tradition Modern Other American Cursive Handwriting • • • • • • • • • Bob Jones Handwriting • • • • • • • • • Christian Liberty Handwriting • • • • • • • • Classically Cursive • • • • • • • Cursive First • • • • • • • D'Nealian Handwriting (2008 ed.) • • • • • • • • • Draw Write Now • • • • • • Handwriting Help for Kids • • • • • • • Handwriting Without Tears • • • • • • • • • Handwriting Skills Simplified • • • • • • • • Happy Handwriting / Cheerful Cursive • • • • • • • • Horizons Penmanship • • • • • • • • • International Handwriting Cont. Stroke (HMH) • • • • • • • Italic Handwriting (Getty-Dubay) • • • • • • • • • Learning to Write Spencerian • • • • • • • • • New American Cursive (cursive only) • • • • • • • Pentime Handwriting • • • • • • • • • • • Preventing Academic Failure Handwriting (PAF) • • • • • • • Printing with Pictures / Pictures in Cursive • • • • • • • • • • Reason for Handwriting (A) • • • • • • • • • • • Sailing Through Handwriting • • • • • • • • • Spencerian Penmanship • • • • • • • Teach Yourself Cursive • • • • • • Universal Handwriting (2nd Ed.) • • • • • • • • • • • • Universal Handwriting (3rd Ed.) • • • • • • • • • • Write-On Handwriting • • • • • • • Zaner-Bloser Handwriting • • • • • • • • • • • *This chart was assembled by Rainbow Resource Curriculum Consultants and is intended to be a comparative tool based on our own understanding of the programs and not necessarily reflective of the publishers' opinions. Some designations are "best fit," not absolute. Handwriting / Typing 403 HANDWRITING / TYPING PRE-WRITING I’m Going To Write! Series (PK-1) then carefully copy the entire selection. At the Please see our Early Learning section for Pre- These full-color practice books are perfect for end of the workbook, they can cut off the bottom Writing Resources. children whose fine motor skills are not quite of the pages to make into a stapled book of their developed, as the books provide really big spaces handwriting practice and end up with a fun book HANDWRITING WITHOUT TEARS GET SET for printing. Two full pages are devoted to each of quotes/jokes/facts. FOR SCHOOL PRE-WRITING PROGRAM (PK) letter of the alphabet. Children are able to famil- Jokes & Riddles: The jokes are silly and goofy, The Get Set for School program is the high qual- iarize themselves with correct letter formation just what kids like! Why do flamingos lift one ity program you would expect from Handwriting by first tracing the dotted lines, and indepen- leg when they stand? If they lifted both legs, Without Tears. This program was designed spe- dent copy work is covered on the second page. they would fall down! Inspirational Quotes: cifically for the preschool years, and uses the Letters are presented in order of difficulty with from leaders such as Gandhi, Martin Luther fun methods you would expect for that age. letters such as “I” and “T” taught at the begin- King, Benjamin Franklin, and others on topics This program employs a unique, multisensory ning, and “S” and “G” taught at the end. Covers such as character, friendship, leadership, and approach which prepares children to write. For letters A-Z and numbers 1-10. - Enh perseverance. Wacky Facts: includes things like more information, please see full description in EACH BOOK . 5.95 4 .75 world records, interesting trivia, cool animal the Early Learning section. 044197 Uppercase 044191 Lowercase facts and more. Available in print or cursive, depending on grade level. It can take only 5-10 TRADITIONAL STYLE - MANUSCRIPT ONLY AlphaTales: A to Z Letter Formation Practice minutes per day to get in some handwriting Pages (PK-1) practice that your child won’t dread. They may Practice This workbook is intended to introduce children even ask to do more than a page a day! 48 pb; These materials are mostly practice; any instruc- to uppercase and lowercase formation and allow reproducible for home/classroom use. ~ Lisa/Sara tion is limited. children to develop their phonemic awareness. EACH BOOK . 10.99 8 .25 Each letter is introduced in the following man- 058907 Jokes & Riddles - Printing (K-2) Kumon My First Book of Letters (ages 3-5) ner: Space is provided for children to first trace 063564 Jokes & Riddles - Cursive (2-5) These Kumon workbooks are designed to help and then reproduce the letter in both uppercase 040312 Wacky Facts - Printing (K-3) children develop pencil-control while learning and lowercase form. The next step is for the 040308 Wacky Facts - Cursive (2-5) the letters of the alphabet. There are two different child to choose the featured letter out of a mix 029926 Inspiring Quotes - Cursive (3-6) consumable workbooks, one dedicated to learn- of various letters (to discriminate between similar ing uppercase letters and the other to lowercase letters). Then, alliterative sentences are used to letters. Many children can recite the alphabet highlight the letter’s sound (long and short sounds at a young age; these workbooks will build on are introduced when appropriate). For example, that foundation to help them learn to recognize “Iguana is on an iceberg.” Lastly, several words and write each uppercase and lowercase letter (with illustrations) beginning with the featured as well. In these books, letters are grouped by letter are introduced. A complete resource for similar strokes. Before being introduced to each introducing the alphabet. ~ Enh letter group, children practice tracing the neces- 023177 . 11.99 8 .95 sary strokes. These books start off with pages of My Own Books-My Printing Practice Book (K-3) straight lines, both up and down and left to right. TREND Wipe-Off I Can Print (PK-2) This small pamphlet-like book is perfect for After completing these activity pages, children This wonderful, durable wipe-off book features practicing handwriting on the go. At 8”x 9”, you are introduced to the uppercase and lowercase pages of letter formation practice, as well as a can throw it in your bag with a pencil and be letters they can create with those strokes: L/l, variety of other early writing activities. Use with ready for any waiting room or restaurant. Each T/t, H/h, I/i, F/f and E/e. The book progresses wipe-off crayons or dry erase markers. ~ Jess page is devoted to a different letter with 9 lines through the more difficult strokes of slanted and 030371 . 4.99 3 .95 per page. There is also a box at the bottom of curved lines until children can write the entire the page that can be used to write a giant letter or alphabet. The correct strokes for each letter are Brighter Child Workbooks: Handwriting (PK-5) draw a picture of something that begins with that numbered to show children how to form the let- Each page of these workbooks contains ten letter. The final pages are for practice of numbers ters properly; and children progress from tracing half-inch practice lines for traditional manuscript and some words that begin with different letters on thick dotted lines to writing the letter on their (like Zaner-Bloser or Reason for Handwriting) of the alphabet. Let’s get writing! ~ Alissa own. After students complete the 80 fun tracing using solid blue headlines and baselines, and red 051584 . 1.99 1 .75 pages, you can reward them with the certificate broken middle lines. These practice books are of completion in the back. ~ Steph organized alphabetically and increase in difficul- ReadyWriter Drill Masters & SuperSlate (PK-3) EACH WORKBOOK . 7.95 5 .95 ty as students progress through the book: the first ReadyWriter Drill Masters use a more pictorial 034387 Uppercase third practices each upper and lowercase letter, (visual) approach to learning strokes, letters and 000309 Lowercase the second combines letters to form words, and numbers. Each exercise is a scene from Farmer the final third forms sentences which emphasize Brown’s farm with a fun little story. They will My Book of Alphabet Games (PK-1) each letter. Colored illustrations are introduced complete pictures, go through mazes, and trace If your children have mas- in the latter two sections. Consumable, non-re- letters and numbers. This is a basic print program tered writing their upper and producible, 8.5” x 11”, 80 pp, sc. ~ Ruth that can be used with young children as young lower case letters then they are EACH WORKBOOK . 4.99 3 .95 as four. They will be developing fine motor skills ready for the next step! In 044110 Cursive 044119 Printing while learning to print. this third book of the alphabet ReadyWriter now comes with the SuperSlate sequence by Kumon (after My ☼Handwriting Practice Series (K-5) feature. The SuperSlate is a reusable, transparent First Book of Uppercase Letters Meeting resistance when it comes time for overlay that fastens firmly over your drill sheet and ...Lowercase Letters) your handwriting practice? These themed practice that has been placed on the base. Use only a children will learn to link upper books can save the day. Each workbook has 40 #2 pencil or mechanical pencil with an HB lead and lowercase letters while working on alpha- reproducible practice pages with built-in moti- to write answers to the drill problems. Flip the betical order. These skills are enhanced with vation. There is a short review at the beginning sheet over to check your answers, then clean the the help of fun games like connect-the-dots and on how to form the letters, but this is more for overlay with a bit of petroleum jelly and dry cloth coloring and tracing activities. 80 pages with practice than initial instruction. The pages start or tissue. The SuperSlate allows you to use your full-color illustrations. – elise with 3 target words from the quote/joke/fact for Drill Masters repeatedly. ~ Donna 016028 . 7.95 5 .95 the student practices writing a few times. They 033943 . 23.95 19 .95 404 Handwriting / Typing See page vi for key to Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act warning labels. DRAW • WRITE • NOW (K-6) TRADITIONAL STYLE - floor, but for a ‘2,’ the spider does a big “bump These are unusual books, combining art instruc- MANUSCRIPT & CURSIVE jump” out from the wall, then crawls along the tion with handwriting practice, and incorporating floor.